If Donald Trump isn’t elected in November, I wonder if the Evangelical preachers, pastors, and evangelists who are still so vocally supportive will hire him for their churches, missionary organizations, religious nonprofits, Christian universities, or parachurch ministries. I wonder if they’ll consider putting him on staff where they do their work in the name of Jesus.
Actually, I don’t wonder at all. They won’t, and do you know why?
Because someone who has done and said the things Trump has, would be patently ineligible for these positions—any of them.
His Tweets alone would disqualify him from consideration on any level with any self-respecting search committee. He wouldn’t even get an interview or a call; not to teach, preach, mentor middle schoolers, care for preschoolers, manage volunteers, steward finances, or supervise the parking lot. His resume would be thrown in the garbage without a second thought. Trust me on that. I’ve watched it happen.
Over the past 19 years I’ve been on staff everywhere from small country Methodist chapels in Pennsylvania to massive Baptist megachurches in the Southeast, and Donald Trump’s visible behavior, language, and social media comments would have declared him an absolute non-starter for a position in ministry in any of them—period. I’ve seen people’s candidacies for positions as youth ministers, preschool directors and associate pastors stopped in their tracks because of evidence of alcohol consumption, crude language, or inappropriate expressions of anger. At the mere suggestion of infidelity or predatory activity or unscrupulous financial dealings, people would have been declared persona non grata in the candidacy process.
There would have been no rationalizing away of these things or arguing they were taken out of context or any comparing them with the words and acts of other men in an effort to normalize them. They would be condemned outright and that would have been that. And if anyone tried to say that someone like Trump was just a “baby Christian” and should get a pass, they would have been told that meant he wasn’t ready to lead on any level yet. His immaturity would have trumped his confession of faith every single time, whether the position was a Bible Study leader or a band director.
With its strict morality and purity codes, Trump’s conduct wouldn’t allow him to even attend Liberty University as a student, which makes Jerry Falwell Jr’s bold and repeated endorsements all the more telling.
This is the hypocrisy at play here in the religious leaders sticking to their guns and endorsing Donald Trump. It is self-preservation and bedfellow-making of the worst kind; the kind that pretends to be interested in the things of Jesus. These endorsements are not moral or spiritual in nature. They are strictly for political and financial gain, and if there’s ever an occasion for repenting, this is it.
Most rational people, Christian or otherwise, recognize selling out when they see it. And in this case they can rightly see that it isn’t just them selling out, it’s them selling their souls.
Put that on your pulpit and pound it.
